The effect of heat treatment process on structure and properties of ZnO nano layer produced by sol–gel method

ZnO nano layer was prepared by sol–gel method using zinc acetate dihydrate, methanol and diethanolamine as precursor, solvent and stabilizer, respectively. According to the thermal analysis results, the heat treatment process after producing ZnO nano layer can be divided into three stages. The structure of the nano layer showed a significant dependency on heat treatment temperature in the low temperature heat treatment stage, which is performed to evaporate the organic components. The high temperature heat treatment stage has no significant effect on the structure of the films. The temperature employed in the first stage of heat treatment process during the initial 10 min of heat treatment was found to be important in determining the structure of the films. The results determined that the elimination condition of the organic components is very important for achieving high crystallinity.